


Karkat ==> Attend High School

by artsyAquarius



Series: Paper Lanterns Universe [3]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Gen, Humanstuck, Karkat is nervous, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, first day at high school
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 13:17:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1107313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artsyAquarius/pseuds/artsyAquarius
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Karkat Vantas begins his education at high school and meets many interesting people, including a spaced-out clown kid, a lispy nerd, a hyper cat-girl, a crazy blind chick and an evil blonde bitch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Karkat ==> Attend High School

**Author's Note:**

> I just really wanted to write paperlanterns!Karkat's first day of school. (expect more of these sort of things)

“Are you excited to be starting school tomorrow?”   
You glowered into your tea. What a stupid question. “No.” you grumbled. You were not excited. You were dreading it more than the time Mrs Maryam made you dress up for her friend’s wedding.   
Kanaya frowns at you. “Why not? You’re lucky to be going to a co-ed school. And it’s public, too. I thought your father was being pretty fair.”   
Of course she’d say that. She resented that she had to go to an all-girls school. “I’m not gonna know anyone there. And…they’re gonna make fun of me.” You mumble, and Kanaya smiles at you endearingly.   
“You’ve got nothing to worry about, Karkat. You’re a wonderful person; I’m sure you’ll make plenty of friends.”   
Again, of course she’d say that. She was much more compassionate than you deserved. But you were certain that someone would make fun of you for something. There was the fact that your dad was the Reverend, your cousin was an annoying prick, and, oh yeah- you were black. You’d already received plenty of racist comments at your other school, and you had no doubt it would get worse. “Whatever.”   
Kanaya sighs. She stands up, walks over to the cupboard, gets out a cookie and places it on your plate. You look down at it, and back up at her. It’s your favourite flavour; triple chocolate. “You’re going to have to cheer up eventually, you know. You’re not going to get anywhere by sulking around like that.” She says, though not without warmth.   
You were really lucky to have Kanaya. She was practically a sister to you. She took care of you like you were her brother. It would be really great if she could be there to get you through high school, but that wasn’t going to happen. 

 

Crap. High school is a lot bigger than you thought it’d be. It didn’t help that your asshole of a cousin, Kankri, had run off to Debate Club, or something. Of course he was in Debate Club. He’d probably put everyone to sleep with his boring rants. The point was, he’d left to fend for yourself, with only the standard time table and map in your hands.   
Keeping your head down, you try to make it to room 24 without attracting anyone’s attention. It’s hard to know what room you’re at when you’re staring at the ground, but you’re sure you can make it.   
You begin to think you must be on the right track when something slams into you, knocking the wind out of you. “Hey, watch where you’re going!” you couldn’t really talk, but whatever.   
“Heh. Sorry, bro, didn’t see you there.” Oh, fuck. You just possibly picked a fight with someone twice your height. Sure, he’s pretty skinny, but you have no doubt he could smash you into the ground if he wanted to. But…it doesn’t seem like he’s particularly angry. His eyes are a weird blue-violet colour, and seem kind of glazed over. He’s smiling at you, but he doesn’t really seem focused. His hair is stupidly voluminous.   
“How the fuck didn’t you see me? What were you, walking around with your eyes closed?” there you go, running your mouth again. And…you don’t think you’re supposed to be swearing?  
The tall guy chuckles. “Well, no offense, bro, but you’re kind of short.”   
Your narrow your eyes. Anyone was ‘kind of short’ compared to this guy. “Well, maybe you’re just freakishly tall.”   
He seems to find this funny. “Hey, so…do you know where our first class is?”  
You frown. “Are you in my class?”  
He shrugs and grins absently. “I, uh…kind of lost my time table thing.”   
You exhale deeply. “How do you even….you know what? Just come to my class, and ask the teacher where you’re supposed to be.”   
He blinks, and nods, smiling. Looks like you’ve made yourself a new friend. “I’m Gamzee Makara. You seem pretty chill, bro.” Makara…oh, crap. Graham Makara was pretty much your dad’s arch nemesis. You should have known by the horrible hair him and Gamzee were related.   
“I’m Karkat.” You say, purposely not using your last name. It could wreck everything by bringing up stupid family arguments.   
You check your time table. “So, Gamzee…you know anything about history?”

 

Gamzee is, in fact, in your class. He sat next to you in class and drew pictures of clowns instead of listening to the teacher. You could tell it was going to be up to you to stop him failing every class.   
When the bell rang, he told you had to go see his cousin, alone, so you were by yourself once again. You decide you might as well hide in the library until the next class.   
All the reading chairs are taken up by groups of friends gossiping about stupid shit, so you have to sit at a computer. The only available seat was next to a pale, scrawny kid. “Can I sit here?”   
He doesn’t look up from his screen. “I don’t know; can you?” oh, great. A smartass.   
“Fine. I guess the seat’s not taken, then.” You sit down on it, and adjust the chair so it sat higher, and the smartass snickers.   
“What?!” you snap.   
“Nothing. Just that you must be fucking tiny if you need to move that chair up.” Ok, you’ve had just about enough of people making fun of your height. You ought to give this kid a piece of your- hold on a second. His voice sounded weird.   
“What’s with the lisp?” you don’t care that you sound rude. He deserved it.   
He turned his head toward you, and you noticed his weird glasses. One lens was blue, the other red. And his eyes were different colours, too; one pale blue, the other brown. “What’s with that ugly sweater?” he asked flatly, keeping a pretty good poker face.   
No, he did not just say that. “It’s not ugly, ok? This just happens to be my favourite fucking sweater, and I don’t need fashion advice from a guy wearing bifurcated sunglasses!”   
The guy smirks, and almost laughs. “You might just be the most foul-mouthed freshman I’ve ever met. You might just make it here, kid. I’m Sollux Captor.”   
You eye him suspiciously. He seems pretty damn full of himself. He must be in the next year. “Karkat Vantas.”   
He taps his fingers on the table thoughtfully. “Vantas, huh? My dad used to work for the reverend.”   
“Used to…? Oh, yeah. They used to be pretty close, right? Why’d he quit the church? Did he stop being Christian or something?” you can see you’ve breached a sensitive topic, and make sure to remember not to mention his dad or his job again.   
“No, he didn’t stop being Christian. There are other reasons to quit your job, you know.” He sighs. “He…got offered a better job. One his skills were ‘better suited to’.” He says, with the slightest bit of bitterness. “Anyway, can we not talk about that? What class you got next?”   
You rack your brain, trying to conjure up the image of your time table. “Art, I think?”   
“Hmm. Fun. I’ve got information technology, but…the teacher’s kind of given up trying to teach me anything I don’t already know, so…” he shrugs at this self-assured statement. “Seeing as you probably have no clue where you’re going, I’ll walk you there.”   
And…you think you just made your second friend that day?

 

You haven’t seen Gamzee since the start of lunch, but he should be able to find his own way to the art room. You briefly wonder what he needed to talk about with his cousin that was so urgent, but it’s probably not polite to ask.   
“The art teacher’s pretty cool. She’ll let you do whatever the hell you want, as long as you don’t break anything. Oh yeah, and if you’re lucky, her boyfriend’ll come in. He’s a total badass; he’s got an eye patch and everything.” Sollux says as you make your way to class. You have to admit it; it’s pretty good to have a friend who’s already been through his first year.   
“Ok, so exactly how much homework should I be expecting? Because I really don’t have time to--”You’re cut off yet again as someone bumps into you.   
“Oh my god. Would it kill you to look where you’re going?!” you snap. You are fed up with this shit.   
The girl who you flipped your shit at gives you the most venomous glare you’ve ever seen. “I don’t know, considering the fact that I’m blind, asshole.”   
Oh. Oh shit. Now, after you’ve already snapped at her, now you see the walking stick and shades. Fucking wonderful.   
“So maybe you could watch where you’re going next time. Or at least be a little more polite when you run into a poor, defenceless blind girl.” She grins mischievously at you, and it’s pretty similar to a smile the Cheshire Cat would give you.   
“Oh my god, I am so sorry! Terezi, are you ok?” a semi-hysterical girl runs up to the crazy blind one. They’re both shorter than you, which is a miracle. While the blind one has auburn hair and is wearing a t-shirt and pants, the other one has short brown curls and is wearing a dress.   
“Nah, I’m fine. Just dealing with this asshole over here.”   
“Oh, so I’m the asshole?!” you snap, knowing you’re going to regret it in a second.   
“Yeah, you kind of are, Vantas.” And there it is. Sollux decides to chime in right at that moment, looking quite fucking amused with himself.   
The other girl looks between the three of you, biting her lip. “I’m sure it was all just an accident. And, well…Terezi can’t exactly help being blind, you know.” She says timidly.   
Terezi laughs, but it’s more like a cackle. “Good to know you’re on my side, Nep. Now c’mon; we gotta get to class, don’t we?” she waves her cane around a bit, and her friend walks over to her, linking arms.   
“’Rezi, don’t be rude! You have to at least introduce yourself, geez!” she huffs, pretending to pout. “I’m Nepeta Leijon. And…well, this is my friend Terezi!” she put on a cheery grin, then lowered her voice. “She’s not really that bad; she just likes to annoy people!” she broke off in a giggle, and Terezi stuck out her tongue in reply.   
“This asshole is Karkat, and I’m Sollux. So, what classes do you ladies have next?”  
Nepeta’s eyes brightened. “We have art! It’s one of my favourite subjects!”  
Sollux smirked and pushed you forward. “Well, Karkat, I’m gonna leave you here. I can’t keep holding your hand all the time, you know.”   
You glower at him. “I never asked for your help in the first place!” you shout after him, but he snickers and walks off, leaving you with the two insane chicks.   
“So you do art?” you ask Terezi sceptically. “How does that even work?”   
She tilts her head, grinning like a madwoman. “Picasso was blind,” she says simply, shrugging.   
“No he wasn’t! What do you take me for, some kind of moron?”   
She cackles again. “That’s exactly what I take you for. It was worth a shot, anyway.”   
You roll your eyes as you walk into the classroom. Gamzee’s nowhere to be seen so far.   
The teacher’s name is Ms Paint, and she’s a short blond woman wearing many layers of pastel-coloured clothes. Just like Sollux predicted, she lets you do whatever you want.   
As the lesson begins, Gamzee strolls in, handing a late pass to Ms Paint. He comes and sits next to you with a goofy grin. “Hey, bro,”   
You glare at him. “Gamzee, where the hell have you been?! You just disappear and leave me alone without explaining anything!”   
He shrugs, still smiling. “Sorry ‘bout that. I really had to talk to Kurloz about something.” He pauses. “Or…uh, sign to him. Whatever.”   
You frown. “Sign? What…?”  
“Oh, you know, like….sign language? My cuz is mute.”   
You shake your head. What a weird family. You’d heard from your dad that the Makaras had a really bizarre religion. Something involving mimes or clowns or something? You never really understood much, since every time your dad mentioned them, he just used a lot of creative insults.   
You both look up as another latecomer enters the room. She doesn’t have a late pass, but she doesn’t seem particularly worried. She’s got a huge mass of pale blond hair, but the most notable thing about her is the insane amount of blue she’s wearing. She has a blue jacket, blue jeans, a blue t-shirt with a disturbing spider image, blue earrings, blue eyes behind thin glasses….the only thing that isn’t blue are her shoes. They’re bright red converses. She comes and plonks herself next to Terezi, while Nepeta eyed her warily.   
“Hey there, Pyrope! Good to see you again!” she said, smiling in a weird, menacing way.   
Terezi grins, but it’s in the same fashion; pretending to be happy, but seeming like they’re planning to eat the other one. “Vriska! I’d say the same, but…..I can’t see you, and it wouldn’t be good if I could.” They both cackle. “Say, weren’t you meant to be in the next year, Serket? What are you doing here?”  
The blond girl, Vriska, rolls her eyes, crossing one leg over the other. “I missed out on too many days last year, teachers decided I had to catch up….so here I am again, with this bunch of losers.”   
You decide you do not like this Vriska Serket.   
“Hey, Nepeta, who is that?” you whisper, not wanting the blue girl to hear you talking about her.   
“Um,” Nepeta bites her lip, thinking. “I think Terezi mentioned her…they went to middle school together. Vriska’s a year older, but it looks like she got kept back this year.” You can see by the way Nepeta’s leaning away from her that she’s intimidated by Vriska. You don’t blame her.   
“Hey, Karbro,” Gamzee taps you on the shoulder. “Check out this wicked clown I drew!”   
It looks like it was drawn by a five year old. “Yeah, great, whatever. Try not to get paint all over me, alright?” it’s pretty terrible, but it’s probably much better than what you could do.   
Eventually the lesson ends (it can’t really be called a lesson because you didn’t learn anything, but whatever) and concludes your first day at high school. Things weren’t quite as terrible as you imagined they would be. You’re just not looking forward to your dad’s reaction when he finds out you are friends with Graham Makara’s son.


End file.
